Since arriving to the 49ers, Steve Mariucci has been an effective motivator. He has found ways to keep the team playing with their hearts all season despite brutal injuries, and sometimes-brutal records. Mariucci has proven that being a ‘players coach’ is an effective way at keeping a team together over the course of training camp to the last game of there season. But how does he do it?

Mariucci is a very direct coach, he says exactly what he is thinking and lets passion get in the way. There have been coaches that talk through the media, but Mariucci is nothing like that. He doesn’t want his players guessing what he is thinking. Thus the team doesn’t lose interest or respect in their coach. The team knows exactly what is expected of them, and knows that when they aren’t meeting expectations they are going to hear about it.

Mariucci has also assembled a similar coaching staff. The cohesive unit provides consistency to the team. The same message from top down, and thus it gets across to the players. Mariucci has made a point of keeping his team together; he puts much effort into developing the young players into a unit where it is not everyone for themselves, but rather a unit where each move is a function of the rest of the team.

Mariucci’s willingness to accommodate his players, sometimes allowing them to stay an extra day when the team visits a home city of a one of the players has also kept the team motivated. As a result the players on the team want to listen to Mariucci. They believe in there coaching staff, and they don’t for a minute question that they can accomplish great things.